Around Us 02-22-2008

Published 6:00 pm, Thursday, February 21, 2008

AMARILLO  A Potter County grand jury indicted an Amarillo man who police think killed another man in a fatal case of road rage.

Timothy Lee Gonzales, 22, has been in Potter County Jail since Aug. 29, unable to post a $250,000 bond.

Amarillo police say he shot to death Felipe DeJesus Cuevas-Mata, 27, during an argument Aug. 28 near the intersection of East Amarillo Boulevard and North Grand Street.

According to court papers, people in a red Dodge Stratus exchanged words with occupants of a blue GMC pickup near the intersection. At some point, a person emerged from the sunroof of the Dodge and began firing shots at the GMC, according to police reports.

Police chased down the Dodge and arrested its occupants.

The GMC crashed into the Royal Inn at 2830 E. Amarillo Blvd., about five blocks away.

Cuevas-Mata, who was in the GMC, was shot several times. He died at Northwest Texas Hospital the night of the shooting.  Amarillo Globe-News

  

CANYON  One thing is settled, schools in Canyon will return to serving beef today, but other questions about the recent beef recall remained unanswered.

California company Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing recalled 143 million pounds of ground beef on Sunday. That was in response to possible animal cruelty under investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

About 37 million pounds had gone to schools in the National School Lunch Program. The rest went to the Emergency Food Assistance Program, Food Assistance Program on Indian Reservations, retailers to be packaged in smaller batches and to food processors to be made into ready-to-use products.

CISD found nine cases of beef from the company and removed them from circulation, awaiting disposal instructions from federal and state authorities, according to information from Laurie Cizon, communications coordinator.

District officials have since determined they located all the recalled beef, allowing them to resume serving beef in their cafeterias.

Other Amarillo-area schools did not find any of the meat.

The Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention announced Thursday it has joined other groups in asking the USDA to identify where besides schools the meat went over the two years covered by the recall.

Current USDA rules do not include retail outlets in recall notices to keep the focus on the producer of recalled products.  Amarillo Globe-News

  

LUBBOCK  Organizers trying to oust Lubbock City Councilwoman Linda DeLeon from office turned in enough signatures Wednesday to force a recall election. Still, the signatures have not been validated by the city secretary.

Two other attempts to recall DeLeon failed in 2007 because of invalid signatures.

DeLeon declined to comment until after the signatures are counted.

Roger Settler, who organized the latest recall, said he gathered 707 signatures. He needs 494 to recall the councilwoman. Of the 494, 10 percent of those who signed must also sign an affidavit saying they voted for DeLeon in her last election.

City Secretary Becky Garza has five days to count the signatures. If the recall petition is successful, DeLeon has the option to resign or face voters in May.

In the two previous attempts to recall her, DeLeon said she would not resign. Her term does not expire until 2010.

Two previous attempts to recall DeLeon were led by Armando Gonzales, who is running for City Council District 2. Both times he turned in more than the required number of signatures  670 and 556. But Garza disqualified enough signatures to stall the effort because her records showed they were not from voters in DeLeon's District 1.

City spokeswoman Pam Fitch said Garza could hold a news conference soon to discuss the recall.  Lubbock Avalanche-Journal